life inside a lighthouse. A Lighthouse Keepers Story. 1994 

Thank you very much John, much appreciated. Hope you had a great Christmas and get an even better New Year. Take care and stay safe.

This is great its like seeing friends after work for a pint x

I was four years old

I am 29 watching this now ❤

Hi Robbie, Long time no see, my hair (What's left that is Ha) is also on the white side and the beard. Glad you like the videos, to date you are the only Lighthouse Keeper to respond. Cheers, take care.

@ROBBIE Goldsmith. And I thought you appeared a bit grumpy... ;o) Thanks for these videos, Peter.

@ROBBIE Goldsmith I am an old sailor, I appreciate that you guys kept the lights on for us out there 😊

@Peter Halil An excellent job Sir. I watched the whole thing and all of a sudden it was over, it felt like it was only ten minutes time 😊

@@agolftwittler1223 Thank you it was a pleasure for us, hopefully Robbie will also see this kind message, cheers, take care.

Cheers mate that means a lot to me, I didn't want the Lighthouse Keeper to fade away without so much as a bleat!..take care

this is the most delicate medium humans have ever used to save history. all that need happen is the power goes out and all this is lost forever as the computers involved would over heat and destroy all the saved information. another scenario could be if RU-vid stops being popular all the saved info could be simply shut off, another could be a virus or even an attack but all that is assuming we will still be using these old time computers when we will likely be using quantum computers in 100 years time

This is one reason I love RU-vid.

I just hope RU-vid won't delete these precious archive videos (under the new policies) just because they "don't have enough profit potential (or something like that)"

@@casekocsk Yoy could ask the channel owner to send it you?

Thank you for liking it, I'm riding a wave of nostalgia editing these videos, cheers.

@Peter Halil said in true maritime fashion...riding a wave 👍

and GPS has made the remote controlled ones obsolete

www.bellrock.org.uk/lighthouse/index.htm

@@si_vis_amari_ama Nice bit of info. Always wondered how they built these lighthouses in the middle of nowhere

Check out the building of the Bellrock Lighthouse on You tube.

im thinking it was built on a breakwall that was eventually washed away from the waves

Elizabeth Reign Castillo Bellrock Lighthouse

Thank you very much for your kind comments. Glad you liked the video, take care and stay safe

Thank you very much for that. Yes, since I've been editing all my videos, I've realised that there is an awful lot of that life that I miss, cheers.

I love them my whole life yet I’ve only seen a couple. I think they are symbolic. I love the foghorns too

@@PeterHalil alas its you in the video. Teacher asked all our class what we wanted to be when older, I said a lighthouse keeper, to much laughter.

@@burroughsw5058Ha Ha!, If you really really still want to, try going the other route and be a techy or labourer that goes out to these lights to service and maintain. cheers

Thank you very much, glad you found my channel. I was 16 once too! Cheers take care and stay safe.

I've just been researching it and one of the ones I could see from Portobello beach was Fidra, I don't know if you know it or visited it? Even though I've lived in London for 15 years, when I go back home to visit family who live a 60 second walk from the sea, I always pop down at night to have a look

@@vandibber8221 No Van, don't know that one so will have to try and google it now to find it. PS. Just found it in Sarah Kerr's book, The British Lighthouse Trail. The lighthouse looks very interesting. Cheers

🙂 ah 16...dreams@@PeterHalil

Cheers, I tried to make it as real as we experienced it.

@ace toxic Thanks for that. cheers

@@PeterHalil if you do put music to this can you play what shall we do with a drunken sailor. on a loop 😉

@@andrewdaley3081 Ha Ha, cheers.

right on, judith. background racket (music?) ruins the show.

I think it's so much better without music. It gives you the feeling that you are nestled safely inside with the crew lol.

Not an easy job! But so interesting, Thankyou for this wonderful video!

@@partyvr5053 Not the worst job either.. lots of time off and if ur there u can just chill most of the time i reckon.. surfing utube and the likes... i could see myself doing that job.. rather then going for work every day at 7 am and having 3 weeks off every year..

Problem is, the age of the internet didn't really coincide with the age of the lighthouse, and it sounds like a lot of the lighthouses are automated now.

It is very satisfying to listen to the sound of the sea rather than the usual loud (and distracting) royalty free music.

Thank you for your kind words. Robbie and Barry were great and I enjoyed taking the films. I've finally had the way with it all to get most digitized, then a very long learning curve to learn how to edit after buying the editing program. If they ever try to sell you something that they say is easy and intuitive....run a mile haha..take care.

encore bravo

Sorry you missed out on being a Lighthouse Keeper, take care.

I was too, very very shy so this was a dream job for me...then they posted me to a Land station where you had to take tourists up and down the Tower and talk to them and answer all the questions. Quite scarey at the beginning but slowly a new me evolved and the wife reckons I haven't stopped talking since! Lol, take care.

@@PeterHalil 😂 The wife.

Same here I'd be quite happy give me 2 cats as well I'm content

Yes I totally agree with that. I used to like to spend a moment or two up in the lantern at night just to watch the lens lit up in motion, also in my filming I try to get the rainbow patterns across the walls etc. Thanks for your input and stay safe.

Thank you for your kind words, take care

John Smith goes for juggler. "Humor" falls flat. From top of lighthouse.

Yeah about 3 cents of it. Shits a scam as per usual with Michigan.

Sounds like a great idea, thanks for liking the video.

Fellow northern Michigander here. I have visited quite a few lighthouses that we have in this, thee greatest state in the country!!!!!!!

I used to fish at the base of the lighthouse at the mouth of the St. Joe River 55+ years ago.

Thank you, and yes they built a stronger braver man in those construction days.I always wondered how many died building these places.

What I was thinking about all through it too.

@@PeterHalil I don't believe lives were valued as much then compared to costs. That being said, I don't know how building such a structure in a location like that could ever be very safe.

@@wisenber They used to have a Lighthouse Museum in Penzance Cornwall that had a mock up of the Granite blocks they used. Each one would would notch/lock into the others to give it great strength and they became one as it were. But just starting the 1st row and trying to get up high enough before a storm came and took all your work away! Hats off to them, brilliant.

@@PeterHalil Just imagine the process of offloading granite blocks with the breaking waves all around. Then think about what the sea water temperature was when they were getting soaked all day. I spent a couple of years doing commercial fishing off the Alaskan coast. I was colder there than any snow covered mountain I've visited. They were a sturdy breed of men.

Thank you very much for your kind words, much appreciated. As for your fear of heights, snap, would you believe I'm not clever with that either! Stay safe, cheers.

Thank you for those comments, glad you enjoyed it, take care.

Ha, exactly what I used to think, cheers

I was just going to say that but thought I'd scroll through the comments first lest I be accused of plagiarism lol.

I'm a retired submariner and at no time in my career when, during either 'angles and dangles' (planesman training, drills etc) or the occasional emergency surface, did I ever think that this extreme bow up/down angle made me feel I was in a lighthouse!! Funnily enough, my old fellah was a Keeper, served on The Bishop, Wolf, Longships, Strumble Head, Eddystone, Strumble Head, Flatholm and 1 or 2 others I think. Furthermore, my 2nd cousin 3x rem. was RT Grenfell who was the Principal Keeper at St Catherines on the Isle of Wight, sadly killed by a Luftwaffe air raid along with the other 2 Keepers in 1943.

@@kevg3320 Hi, what was your Dads name please also as a matter of coincidence or what a small world, I was a keeper for a few years at St Catherines and visited the Keepers graves up in Niton churchyard. Oh and one of the Keepers in this movie in his interview I did says it's a bit like living in an upright submarine !..take care.

My Mrs applied for a job that was posted as Light House work. She thought she was going to do some cleaning . But found herself a mile out in the English Channel

Cheers thank you for your very kind words, much appreciated, take care.

Thank you for those kind words, that chap on the Bishop could have been Andy Bluer, but there were a few that were into radio, cheers

@@PeterHalil It was some years back now when i was on holiday in Cornwall and visited the Lighthouse Museum (i believe has closed now?) and i was just wandering around when this guy kind of "attached" himself to me as an unofficial guide! He told me he'd worked for Trinity House as a keeper in various lighthouses, both land and offshore. He certainly knew his stuff and i found him very interesting to chat with. The museum should have given him a job but i think he was just happy to talk to anyone about his life before retiring.

@@Bulletguy07 I've been to that museum, in fact my pic that appears on here was taken there in front of the Bishop rock lens. Yes it is closed, wonder where all the exhibits went? Cheers for that, stay safe.

Thank you very much for your kind comments, so glad that you enjoyed it. I very much doubt that it has been preserved as is in the movie. A lot were converted to solar etc, and the insides changed forever, a shame that progress and preservation don't always meet in the middle. Thanks once again, stay safe.

Me too, real men then. That would be a brilliant movie for somebody to make.

@@PeterHalil Thank you for uploading this I am always fascinated by the technical details and I am pleased you took the trouble to provide a window into the manned lighthouse days. There is an interesting drama/doc made about the trials and tribulations of building the Bell Rock lighthouse which might interest you :- www.dailymotion.com/video/xr5mk2

xvdd1 well done and informative!

There's a bit of history regarding lighthouses here- specifically the Eddystone lighthouse and its history, why it was made et cetera. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-QmrjoKJ4s58.html

Where did crew go to smoke?

Sorry for the delay, lots of messages only found today. So glad you love Lighthouses and you explained Lighthouses and Keepers very well thanks. Take care, stay safe.

Go look at Stannard Rock in Lake Superior. Beautiful and incredibly isolated. I don’t think I could do this.

Thank you very much for those kind words. I guess we were all of that. We did have our moments when clashes of personality reared it's ugly head. Luckily, those moments were rare. Thank you once again, stay safe and take care.

Grief, I'm really getting a "Big Head"now Ha!, thank you for your lovely comments and yes I don't like to put any other sound in my movies than that which was there.I tried to do exactly what you said, I wanted people to get a feel for it plus of course it was a heavy dose of nostalgia for me. Yes again the lights used to be driven by a big brass cogged clockwork motor that drove the huge lenses round by means of a wire with a heavy weight attached slowly going down the tower inside a big metal tube passing through the center of all the rooms in old photos. when it reached the bottom, it would ring a bell and the keeper would wind it back up again about once an hour all through the night.Cheers Robin, take care.

Agreed Robin. The absence of music gave the video one of the most calming, therapeutic, and relaxing video I have ever seen on RU-vid. This video requires some type of award!

@@thekaiser7555 Apparently Peter did get an award for this, and well deserved at that.

Thank you Joyce, welcome aboard, glad you enjoyed our efforts. Lots more to come. Take care and stay healthy and safe.

Glad you liked our efforts, I was in the Navy before the Lighthouses, take care,safe seas.

Thanks for your brilliant reaction, take care mate.

Same :)

And a few books = heaven

& a cannabis plant

Peter Walker ,condensation dribbling.

Cheers it certainly was a great place to be.

And a bunch of fog horns going off every minute

Exactly hey! this would have been ruined with music

So true!! I'm tired of barely hearing dialogue because of swelling fucking music.

100% agree

@@masterspacetime2826 I'll have to check that one out! Never occurred to me. Cheers.

Sorry for the delay in responding but only just finding lots of messages that snuck through without notifying me, that said, Thank you for your comments I wanted people to feel the life as we the Keepers lived it so I'm well pleased that most of you liked it, cheers mate.

Thank you very much. Yes I think we could have fed ourselves just from the sea there. All the lights are automated now. Thanks again, take care.

Thanks glad you liked it.

Grief that's some good History you've got in your family there, so there must be some salt water coursing through your veins somewhere. Thanks for your comments and take care.cheers.

Thank you glad you liked it. Yes it was one of those jobs that you either took to or didn't, and I loved it. Didn't realize how much I missed it till I'm doing the editing and re living the past myself.

@@PeterHalil There is an old (today abandoned) lightouse on a small island in the Baltic sea not far from where i live, i always dreamed about living there since i was a kid, i even asked the autority represent if it was for sale, but i did not got any clear ansvear, but i realy hope sonebody will preserve it for the future. :)

@@sheep1ewe Thank you mate, I wish you well and hope you either get that Lighthouse preserved or they let you buy it. I was going to buy an old windmill once because it was a bit like a Lighthouse!, take care.

Thank you so much for those very kind comments. So glad you enjoyed our video record. Take care and stay safe.

Thank you for you kind comments, I hope the other 2 Keepers see this, Oh, and the photographer, which is me was also a working Lighthouse Keeper, I did the movie making in my spare time. Thanks once again, take care.

Peter Halil You are very welcome! I mean what I said sincerely!

Lmao. Weed? Or something stronger?

Thank you very much Sid, glad you liked it, Take care and stay safe

So you have 3 Lister diesel engines to generate power to run everything. Today virtually no one would agree to work in such a facility.

Thank you ever so much for your very kind words. I hope that other ex Lighthouse Keepers get to see them. We enjoyed making our Lighthouse "Documentary", so glad you enjoyed it. Thanks again and stay safe.

Yes it wasn't really till they got the ability to control Lighthouses over the air waves via computers, that hastened our demise.

@shinukism shnuck Only in your imagination. I imagine that after a couple of weeks out there you would have jumped off and drowned yourself. You simply would not have the heart or stamina for such a life.

absolutely agree with you

Oh, I like what you did there...dim, unlike the subject. Yes indeed. :)

Agreed.

agreed

Thank you for your kind words, although I must admit I always felt "Special", because it was a job not many people did, however when a big blow came I was safe inside a fortress of a granite tower whilst the likes of people like you were on a boat made of stuff not meant to float being thrown all over the place. I could never have done your job. Cheers mate, take care.

This just came up on my recommended list also. This is what RU-vid is really good for. A great boon for the armchair traveler. Many thanks for making and posting the video. My hat's off to all keepers.

@@spikespa5208 Thank you very much, more to follow, cheers.

Sorry for delay but lots of messages were hidden from me, Thanks a lot for your kind words, more videos to come, take care

@@PeterHalil Thank YOU Peter. I shall look forward to your other videos. It was reading Stargazing: Memoirs of a Young Lighthouse Keeper by Peter Hill that piqued my interest. It has a lot of the romance about the profession and I'd recommend it to anyone.

@@PeterHalil Oh goodie, goodie. I'll be looking for Them!!!

Thank you very much. I wish that the camera technology was better back when I did it, also, a drone would have been great. Technology just gets better and better. Cheers and stay safe.

@@PeterHalil for sure, it's amazing how quickly technology advances in a short amount of time. It even had me wondering if drones will eventually replace even the automated lighthouses. By the way, I found the parts such as where you were catching crabs and also incinerating rubbish particularly interesting. It's these little things nobody ever thinks of even when imagining what life was like fora. lighthouse keeper. I'm definitely going to watch some more of your videos tonight with a brew :)

@@NBSFDrone Thank you, it was a dream job to me and others, I wanted to try and capture some of it before it was gone forever. Cheers and stay safe.

Thank you for your kind words and I certainly also think that I had a unique experience. When I joined there was only about 250 of us Keepers. There will be more videos of different Lighthouses to follow.

Thanks glad you enjoyed it, more to come.

Does the lighthouse move in the wind ?

thanks and yes all of those things are true, cheers.

Exactly. Would have been too much for me.

Woooooooo!!!......you go Aunt Kitty!! Boom chicka wow wow!

Hi Aunt Kitty, Well I am now a 75 years old and not handsome anymore. Pity you didn't find one of my messages in a bottle. Take care. Robbie.

Thank you very much for your kind words, glad you liked it, and our way of life that we enjoyed. Cheers, Stay safe and take care

Time flies alright, stay safe and thank you very much

Thank you very much for the information, that life sounded perfect. I shall be in Florida next year so hopefully film a few lights on our trip. Cheers and stay safe

Thank you, glad you liked it. I recently had a comment from a lady who said that in my movie when I filmed Robbie doing his message in a bottle, she found it and responded to him!..take care

Thank you for your kind words, and we enjoyed every minute, cheers.

Lol, cheers mate, I was constantly amazed how many Keepers had a "Teddy" from their missus to keep an eye on them, take care.

No you aren't the only one I think there are a lot of would be Lighthouse Keepers out there.cheers mate.

Thank you, I've only just discovered this message. A brilliant book i'm just finishing is "The Red Rocks of the Eddystone" by Fred Majdalany. It goes into great detail of building a Lighthouse on reefs out to sea, still available as second hand book, worth a read, cheers.

Thank you for your great feed back, glad you liked my video, more to follow, some already out on my site. I actually trained up to be a trucker when I was made redundant but instead of pounding the Highways like you, I ended up on a RAF base fueling the planes from a bowser.Take care, cheers mate.

Thanks for your interest and I hope you get to see a Lighthouse someday,take care

Oh my gosh I went to battery point lighthouse in crescent city CA. It was amazing I’m going to go on a tour of it too I can’t wait ! Have to go at low tide at high tide the path is covered it’s gonna be wonderful !

@@mekomaidengirlgaming2439 enjoy your tour when you get there, stay safe

Peter Halil I will thank you I’ll stay safe and after this lighthouse I know what I’m gonna do I’m gonna go see others and travel the world when I’m older and actually out of school but for now I’m happy battery point is the first one i see!

Guess what Annah, mine too, take care. Lots more to follow.

Would have loved to been stationed on one with my Collins KWM-2A gear and a good tuner.

@@tompinnef6331 qsl- 73's

I operated an SSB station from there for several years and became a popular contact from stations all over the world. I was in the Alpha Tango Group and as you know Guernsey was prefix 169 73's and 88's Ian and tom.

Thanks, so glad you liked it, stay safe

Hi Rowan, Thank you for your kind words, glad you like my channel, welcome aboard, safe winds and calm seas.

Thank you very much, I really enjoyed all my Lighthouse videoing,and it kept me focused away from my impending redundancy at that time.

Awards are given so they dont have to pay them

@@Karl-Benny So so true!..Lol

Cheers, and Robbie has had lots of replies from around the world to his messages in bottles.

@@PeterHalil Awe, that's wonderful.

Thank you for your kind words, much appreciated. Stay safe.

Haha, we did lots of stuff back then that would make health and safety scream.

Hi, nice to hear from Robbie's grandson, before I joined up it was 2 months on!..so that would have been a long time for me.

Hi Luca, Thanks I am proud that you are my Grandson.

It's hardly solitude. There was quite a lot to do really. The sound of the gennies and two other workmates and close sleeping quarters would make it less so. Jack Kerouac experienced solitude at Devil's Peak Fire Lookout. This isn't that. southernchronicles.icebreaker.com/adventure/the-forgotten-guardians-of-the-forest/

@@ThePaulv12 You are right of course, sometimes it would be the total opposite of solitude or lonely.

@@ThePaulv12 Hi, your right us keepers never thought of it as solitude and enjoyed the company of each other. Although I never found it lonely I know a lot did and didn't stay in the Lighthouse Service for too long.

Thank you for that, so glad you liked our efforts, cheers

Thank you Jeremy, glad you liked it, cheers and stay safe.

Dave Beedon Hear hear 👍🏼

Thank you very much so glad that most people have enjoyed it, more to come hopefully, take care, sorry about the delay in answering but only just finding loads of comments that snuck in under the youtube radar.

@@AfricanFlightStar Cheers mate.

Thank you for your very kind words, hi to you across the pond, take care.

@Bains Broadcasting LTD. Hi it is 36 metres or 118 feet, cheers.

You sound like you appreciate them as much as me, all the best and take care.

Thanks for your comments , and grief that's certainly a long time tending the light and keeping an eye out for the Mariner, cheers.

Thank you Quaalude, much appreciated, and yes, we all need to hope that too, take care.

Thank you very much, glad you enjoyed it, cheers.

Thank you very much, so glad you found my videos. Stay safe.

Brilliant, well done them, us Brits can't even get out of Europe Ha Ha!, take care.

Same.

Me as well.

same for me.

thanks mate, take care

It does still exist in Ireland, my father looks after 2 lighthouses,been doing it over 30 years now, itss not a full time job tho, just a few days a week average, maintaining, monitoring etc

you are very welcome, thank you for your kind comments, take care.

Grief, East Cowes gone too? I didn't know that. Thanks for your kind words.

Cheers glad you stumbled and liked the video Lol

Thank you for liking it, sorry for delay but a mass of messages went walk about into cyber space and I'm slowly discovering them! there is more footage of other lights and keepers coming, take care

Thank you for that, I tried to make it so you could almost be with us and feel it more, the relentless sea etc. So glad you liked it, Take care and stay safe, so far I'm Ok thanks.

Thanks for the kind words James, glad you liked the video, cheers.

Hi Chazz, glad you liked my video, and who knows perhaps you are right about your previous life, take care

@@PeterHalil Thanks and you as well!

Thank you, Yes I think he did, it's been a bit like stepping back in time for all of us.

@@PeterHalil Thanks for taking the time to reply Peter. Please, no need to reply again to this but since I have the ear of a real life Keeper, I'd like to say that in all my years (47 now) I have had a serious curiosity of life lived on a lighthouse..Of course with the iconic 1989 picture of "La Jument", which you may or may not be happy about, it just intensifies my curiosity. I wonder what it is that causes someone like me to have a feeling like this? Possibly an ignorant romance. Who knows? Regardless, your group of videos have been some of the best things I have ever saw in years and answered some of my long winded curiosity. Personally, I think you, Robbie and all the other Keepers are some of the luckiest people in the World to have experienced this position... I do realise of course that some of you just saw this as work and that life may not have been so romantic.... Thanks from this Scot in Australia

@@johnmurray3956 Thank you very much, you hit the nail on the head there with some Keepers just doing a job but that said, me and the vast majority of the others loved it, I only ever met a couple of the ones that it seemed wasted on. Yes we were very lucky to have done that job. So glad people like you are enjoying these videos of a life that once was.Take care mate down under, cheers

Thank you Geoffrey, much appreciated, hope you and your family are staying safe during these horrible times, take care.

Thank you very much, glad you enjoyed it. Cheers and stay safe

Cheers Frank, glad it tugged at those memories for you. I was listening myself the other day when editing, of the radio chatter we used to get from the local fishermen, who seemed to think it was their local telephone service! That brought some memories flooding back to me too. Stay safe, thanks

Thank you, glad you liked it.

Thank you Julia, glad you liked it. Stay safe and Happy New Year.

Thank you very much for the kind comments , glad you enjoyed the video. You seem to have had a very interesting life as well, Take care and stay safe.